My worst interview EVERJust had an interview from hell and need to vent. The interview lasted a total of 15 minutes! The interviewer (an HR recruiter) showed no interest whatsoever in my background and seemed like she could not get me out of there fast enough. At first, she asked me about my previous job. I described my responsibilities, explained my reasons for leaving (left on my own and on good terms). Then, 5 minutes into the interview, she asks me if I have any questions. Questions about what? We haven't even approached the position yet. I asked if she would mind telling me more about the position, but she just repeated what was in the ad (Umm, I already knew all of that, but ok, moving on). I must admit, I did not expect the interview to be over after only 2 questions and was a little stumped. Trying to think of something to say, I asked some stupid industry-related question that was not relevant to the position, but then tried to recover by asking 2-3 relevant ones. I doubt it made a difference either way because she did not seem to be interested in interviewing me from the get go (I mean, 2 questions, come on...). Once she answered my last question, she jumped up, stuck a business card in my hand, gave me the standard "we are still interviewing candidates, won't start scheduling 2nd interviews until 2 weeks from now" (yeh, right, these kinds of entry level positions are usually filled within 2 weeks), and walked me to the door at a near running pace. I still don't know what happened. I know I didn't do anything to prompt this. I've been to plenty of interviews before, and received some offers. I know how to conduct myself, how to dress, and how to act during an interview. I did not show up in pijamas, or say something psychotic which would've explained her wanting to get me out of there as soon as possible. The only explanation I can think of is that she must have noticed something she didn't like or that didn't fit the position in my resume that she had not noticed prior to scheduling the interview. If so, why didn't she just cancel? This "courtesy interview" may only have taken her 15 minutes, but for me, it was a 2 hour commute in both directions in freezing weather. Had I known I was no longer being seriously considered, I would've gladly stayed home. Anyway, thanks for a chance to vent. I've had some bad interviews in the past, but with this one, I honestly have no idea why I was called in. I don't know, maybe she lost interest because I reminded her of someone she hates, or maybe she didn't like my haricut or something. I am just really steamed that I wasted all this time. Hey, do you think she is expecting a thank you note? LOL I hear ya. I have a big problem with HR interviews. It seems like whenever I go in for a screening interview, the HR person interviewing me appears miserable and bored. DOESN'T ANYONE IN HR TRULLY LOVE THEIR JOB? If not, why are they doing it? There are plenty of other possible careers. If you are just going to be bored with having to conduct interviews and get irritated at the applicants for showing up, why not seek employment in a different field that's more to your liking? Aren't they supposed to project enthusiasm about the company and its culture and have great people skills? Once, I had an interview similar to yours. I also came home wondering what the interviewer's problem was and why I was treated as though I forced my way into their office and demanded to be talked to, and she was doing me a favor by obliging, as opposed to being invited there for the purpose of interviewing. Then, I googled her name (something I should've done prior to the interview, but didn't), and found her online profile. I think it was on a personal blog. Anyway, it turns out she had a Fine Arts degree. Fine Arts! She was probably depressed out of her mind filling out paperwork all day in a windowless tiny office and interviewing candidates who are looking forward to a more exciting career than hers. Not to insult those who work in HR because that's what they really want to do, it's just that I am a creative person myself, and I can tell you that the type of personality it takes to dedicate years to the study and practice of visual arts does not lend itself to HR work. It's kind of like forcing a mathematician to compose classical music. The point I'm trying to make is that she did not seem abrasive and hostile because there was something wrong with my presentation. She was abrasive and hostile because she wasn't happy with what she was doing. Perhaps it's the same with your interviewer. It sounds like you weren't in there long enough to have done anything wrong. She was probably just projecting something negative going on in her life. It's unfortunate, of course, that you may have missed out on an opportunity because the interviewer was having a bad day. However, look at it this way. This person clearly is not doing a very good job representing her company, and should never have been put in a position where she is the first point of contact for new talent hoping to work there. Do you really want to work for a company that makes such poor decisions? After all, they hired her. Who knows how many more unpleasant, unhappy people they employ and how it's affecting the company culture. Perhaps, you dodged a bullet here. That reminds me of an interview I had a looong time ago. I believe that it was my third or fourth in my entire life. The company' s hiring person called me in for an interview. he left me cooling my heels in the lobby for about 10 minutes AFTER my interview time. I had arrived almost 20 minutes early because I had to rely on my sister bringing me so she could have the car to pay a bill while I was in the interview. Anyway, he finally called me in to the interior office and brought me to the conference room and immediately after shutting the door stated that this interview was just a formality on his part. He needed to interview five people per company policy but I didn' t have any of the experience that they needed and he already knew who he wanted to hire. Being young and stupid and pretty much pissed off that he was wasting my time, I said to him, "then get someone else to fill your quota, you jack@ss" and stormed out the door. I think I left a mark in the wall judging by the way I slammed it open. Then I went outside to wait for my sister to come back with my car. When I told her and she told her husband we decided to contact the interviewer' s supervisor. So I did the next day. I have no idea what happened after that because I didn' t bother to follow up on anything. My brother-in-law is positive that after I called the supervisor there was one additional person in the market for a new job. I have to agree with Kelly. She probably wasn't interested in what you had to say from the very beginning because they probably HAD to interview a certain number of people even though they already have a candidate in mind. Seriously, if she did not even bother to tell you about the position to see if you had something to say about the job description, you most likely were never actually considered. I personally could not bring myself to do that to an applicant--too much bad karma, but some people can and do. I was told that if you are currently unemployed (I don't know if you are employed or not), you are more likely to be picked for these "just for quota" interviews because this way, the interviewers don't have to feel bad about tearing a working person away from work needlessly. Of course, it probably does not occur to them that it's even more cruel to do that to an unemployed person, who probably already feels less confident because of this fact and the last thing they need is to feel even worse because now they think they did something wrong that cost them the opportunity, not realizing that there never was an opportunity to begin with. If I were in your situation, and wanted to have some fun while making the interviewer who wasted my time for no reason feel super bad, I would pretend that I didn't "get it" and thought the interview went spectacularly. I would send a very enthusiastic thank-you letter and talk about what a wonderful rapport we were able to establish, and how much I was looking forward to working for their company. I would then call every 3 days and leave messages about how much I was looking forward to meeting with the hiring manager, and mentioning that I have just recently refused 3 job offers because I simply could not consider working for another company knowing that I have a chance here. Hey, if they purposefully misled you, no reason why you can't annoy the hell out of them in return. I have had one or two of those "interviews from H E L L" myself. It seems to me that the HR recruiter you interviewed with either: 1) Formed a negative opinion of you right off the bat, and knew you weren' t the right one, 2) was having a bad day, as LJ stated, or 3) had a quota of "outside" candidates she had to interview (similar to Kelly' s response), because the position was already promised to someone else, i.e.an internal employee, or someone who knew someone. I agree that the whole interview process has gotten ridiculously out of hand. My last interview two weeks ago ended with the client (who had interviewed me earlier that day, along with a few other candidates at the agency' s location) telling the recruiter that they wouldn' t bring me back in for a second interview (at the client' s actual location), because I didn' t seem a good fit personality wise for their company. DAH!!! Turns out the candidate they did bring in a day or so later turned them down flat, and now they are back to square one. Too bad!! I have gotten to the point, myself, that I am starting to question my own capabilities of obtaining a suitable position, and am about to give up and am probably one half hour from taking that giant step backwards into the temp field again. Boy, can I relate to your interview-from-hell story. It's really an insult when you get there and realize they're only conducting a half-baked courtesy interview, especially when you've rearranged your week's schedule (maybe even burned up leave time on your current job), battled traffic or inclement weather, and paid surprise parking fees (because they don't even have the decency to reimburse you). It's important to remind yourself that you did nothing wrong. There are ways to minimize the chance of stumbling into another time-wasting courtesy interview, though --- mainly by asking a lot of detailed questions beforehand about how many applicants they're interviewing, exactly when they hope to fill the position, and what salary range is associated with the position, etc. If they don't have good answers, chances are they're not in a serious hiring mode. If you get that vibe, think twice about setting up an interview. for crying out loud, how was your last interview situation "out of hand"? They made a decision not to proceed with you. It happens. They then made an offer to someone else who turned them down. So what? This happens all the time. You don' t have to like being turned down, but what you experienced is not "ridiculously out of hand". I know you' re venting and that' s great. But please. Keep some perspective! Sounds like I ruffled someone' s feathers, eh? Sorry if you don' t like the facts, but deal with it. I' m trying really hard to deal with it on my end. My perspective is fine, thanks. The situation I spoke about was just the last straw in a series, that broke the camel' s back. It' s may be time that you come down from your ivory tower and see the hiring prospective from the view of the candidate. All we are asking for is to be treated fairly, with a little decency and respect. There are a lot of lousy, self-centered, egotistical interviewers/recruiters/hiring people out there, and I have had my share of them. How many times have I read posts from people saying they have been getting no follow up response to their phone calls or emails asking what the status of the hiring process is. I' m really tired of all the statements about the HR department being so overworked and having so much on their plate that they don' t have time to respond to their candidates. That' s pure bull. I guess it' s okay for us to have to jump through all the hoops, and then wait on pins and needles for often as long as a month or more to finally find out if we were the lucky one or not, often without any kind of communication at all from the prospective employers as to what is happening. I guess we' re just the poor "unemployed" suckers with nothing better to do. Guess again. I' m afraid we feel our time is just as precious as yours. I am actually one of the fortunate ones, as I am only targeting small companies, most of them who have no HR department. Thus, I am usually dealing directly with the owners themselves in the hiring process. I can just imagine what the people applying to the large corporations are going through, because if their experiences being posted on these boards are any indication, things are, indeed "out of hand." HR is useless when it comes to interviewing candidates, and I don' t see why they should be part of the process at all. They don' t know the position the way the hiring manager does, they don' t know the department the way the hiring manager does, they don' t have the same feel for what to look for in a candidate, and they can and do miss the subtle signs indicating that one might be exactly what the position needs, signs a hiring manager would' ve picked up on. Being given a print out of a job description is not the same as living the job day in and day out. What precisely qualifies them to screen candidates then? And if HR is so "in touch" with the company' s needs and has such deep understanding of what is required of someone in a particular position, how come every single time I interview with the hiring manager first, they love me and I move on to the next stage of the interviews, and, on a couple of occasions, to a job offer, whereas when I have to go through a screening interview with HR, I am never deemed worthy of a call back? I am the same person, with the same resume and the same experience in both instances. Could it be that--hold on to your seats, this is going to be profound--could it be that HR doesn' t understand what they should be looking for half the time (and I' m being generous with my estimation here)? Another aspect of my experience interacting with HR people that really bothers me, and I' ve talked about it here already, is that even though they are supposed to be these great psychologists with amazing people skills, most HR folk I' ve run into, with very few exceptions, are anti-social, dry individuals who look like they hate their lives and the world around them. How these people even get hired into positions where they interact with applicants and why they are allowed to project this negative image of the company to the outside world is beyond me. And then the hiring managers go around complaining that they can' t find good candidates. Go look through the rejected resumes in HR--they' re all in there. While I am one of the first people to explain that hiring managers generally are so buried with work that, yes, it does often take them eons to get through the resume collection & review, interview & reinterview, and hiring process, I believe there is no excuse in the world to treat candidates like so many people here have been treated.... It galls me no end to read posts like the OP's. If I were him/her, I'd send a thank you not to this jerk of an interviewer, just to see if she's paying attention! Ignoring calls & e-mails is rude; interviewing to meet some quota is disrespectful, unless you fully intend to interview with an open mind and maybe choose someone who wasn't the "choice"; not even bothering to express any interest in a candidate who has taken his or her time to come interview with you is inexcusable. When did it become OK to have no manners or consideration/respect for others? And I totally agree it appears that people are being put into HR positions who do not belong there. Are there not enough graduates with concentrations in Human Resources to hire, not enough older professionals who know how to deal appropriately with people? The HR person at my DH's last job was a miserable b-i-t-** who had no people skills at all and was not qualified for the position. Just what the he-ll is going on today? I guess I'm lucky--there is not HR person at the firm I'm with now. Resumes were vetted by the Operations Manager and interviews conducted by the hiring manager. And I must say I was treated exceptionally well throughout the whole process. It was a pleasure, and it's probably one of the reasons I was encouraged about the job. Had I gone through what others have, I'd have packed in the whole idea of looking for a job and would still be in my basement office working my three part-time jobs. | |
|
Career Tips
|